Sony's new PSP Go video game console is struggling to gain any real traction in Australia, with weekly sales across the country languishing in the hundreds rather than thousands, sources say.

The $450 pocket-sized handheld has been criticised for being far too expensive and offering little beyond cosmetic benefits over its cheaper predecessor, the PSP 3000.

Sony admits sales are slow but says new features are on the way that will let the device act as an e-book reader and video player.

A games industry source with access to the official GfK sales figures, who did not want to be named, said Sony had sold fewer than 1000 units of the PSP Go in Australia during its first full week of launch. It went on sale on October 1.

By contrast, Sony's new PlayStation 3 Slim home console, which costs just $50 more than the PSP Go, has been selling more than 10,000 units a week since its launch on September 3.

"[The PSP Go has] a nice design and I think it's quieter [than the original PSP] and uses a little less power but those things are not worth the extra cost, they're pretty cosmetic," the source said.

"It's $450 and you can get a decent PSP 3000 package for sub-$300, so it's hard to see who it was aimed at."

Michael Ephraim, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand, said in a phone interview from London that the weekly sales figure was "not under 1000 but it's slightly over 1000".

well, i think sony director for AU & NZ might have been trying to make themselves look better by saying it was just over 1000 sold. either way, still an overpriced piece of hardware. now i see it for 399, which is 50 less than its retail price of 449.

I bet that one of the main reasons it is not selling is that stores are unwilling to do heavy promotion as they get hardware sales and thats it. Give them some incentive to download titles like sell prepaid game codes in stores and such. But all of this is useless until we get a decent download allocation without paying through the nose.

I think the main reasons for this "flopping" here in Aus is because of very light promotion in Game and EB games in my area this isn't even in stores and it's only available in Big W and Harvey Norman. Also the PS3 slim was released close to this for like 50 - 60 bucks more which is a very bad marketing scheme. Also the PSP 3000 is much cheaper than this and has a bigger screen and better controls. Also UMD's and online Go games are around the same price so more people would be buying the PS3 or PSP 3000 over a PSP Go and with the PSP 2 coming soon what's the point of the GO?

So they'll release a video player and ebook reader for the PSP go huh?
Sony, guys, anything you release for the go would be 100% compatible with the 3000, give it up, there is nothing DLC or download wise that could possibly salvage the Go.

Only Sony could release one system that utterly flops, alongside another system that ends up dominating the charts.

I'm so glad it's a flop I guess we crims are a little smarter then we've been taken for in the past. I emailed them saying it was crazy to have a price like that but they didn't listen at all. EB Games and a lot of other stores like KMart and Target are not stocking them at all and rightly so. Why stock a machine that you'll only make 6% margin on and then not be able to make any money on the sale of games. It's a stupid idea not to have a physical game in your pocket for your money anyway. I hope this has been a learning experience for Sony. A big expensive learning experience.

Umm.. Rayder I bought a DSI and I feel it is a really well put together piece of machinery. Even though it's not flashcard friendly just playing it feels nicer. The way the buttons click and the music player isn't that bad if you get some decent earphones. (Could use some bass adjustment features though.)
Even if I couldn't use a flashcard on it I'd still be happy with my purchase in that area.

Umm.. Rayder I bought a DSI and I feel it is a really well put together piece of machinery. Even though it's not flashcard friendly just playing it feels nicer. The way the buttons click and the music player isn't that bad if you get some decent earphones. (Could use some bass adjustment features though.)
Even if I couldn't use a flashcard on it I'd still be happy with my purchase in that area.

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Exacto. Before I got a DSi, I honestly didn't think I was missing much...

But that's going off topic :X

PSP Go is just terrible... but I've never been a fan of Sony so I would say that.

It's also still illegal in most countries, but I don't want to get into an argument on that.

Honestly, I've yet to see anything that points to the Go selling decently anywhere. I've not seen a single electronics retailer around where I live selling them - not Walmart, K-Mart, RadioShack, or even any smaller electronics stores. On the other hand, this is a pretty rural area; Walmart still has a nice stock of PSP-2000s, and didn't start selling 3000s until the Rock Band package came out.

It's also still illegal in most countries, but I don't want to get into an argument on that.

So is rape and child pornography but that doesn't stop people from doing it. Not to compare rape and child pornography to piracy. Piracy is much worse, kids! (that was sarcasm). My DS is "download only" now, suck on that Sony!

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Honestly, I've yet to see anything that points to the Go selling decently anywhere.

Sony said that the PSP Go "sold up to their standards", but that's clearly a cheap tactic. I could say I expected my new gaming device, the GuildGame, to sell 10.5 units and then say it "met my expectations" and thusly convince people it isn't a failed piece of technological garbage.

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I've not seen a single electronics retailer around where I live selling them - not Walmart, K-Mart, RadioShack, or even any smaller electronics stores. On the other hand, this is a pretty rural area; Walmart still has a nice stock of PSP-2000s, and didn't start selling 3000s until the Rock Band package came out.

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Even if it is the newest and most fashionable paperweight, retailers should still sell it. It's probably because you're in a rural area. So many people buy on the information superhighway nowadays anyway (3 words ending in "ay", that's a record).

As stated above, download-only systems make zero fucking sense in Australia, a country where download caps are extremely low and harshly enforced. Even if you leave out the fact that most people have painfully slow Internet in Australia, most people just don't have the bandwidth to spare on downloading (large) games. Sales in the "hundreds" is hilarious though, so at least the Go is good for something.

As stated above, download-only systems make zero fucking sense in Australia, a country where download caps are extremely low and harshly enforced. Even if you leave out the fact that most people have painfully slow Internet in Australia, most people just don't have the bandwidth to spare on downloading (large) games. Sales in the "hundreds" is hilarious though, so at least the Go is good for something.

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So a game that is no larger then 2GB is considered a big game? At 2GB a pop I could download 30 PSP games with a 60GB download limit. You guys are no worse off then us Canadians though, max download speed is 50Mb and only in large residential areas, my download speed is 10Mb which is decent enough for downloading any large files though, it only takes about 30 minutes to download a 4GB file. I am of the opinion though that stuff you purchase from an online store that is direct to drive or game patches and software updates should not count against your download cap, World of WarCraft almost made me go over my cap once and sadly that is just how internet companies like to fuck us over. It's not like there is a huge number of PSP games worth downloading either when you think about it.